Thanks to ethnological materials present today around museums in Bosnia and Herzegovina and partially present oral tradition, at least among the older population, we know of the more important cults which were present among the Bosnian people since ancient times. Their peculiarity was based on worshiping nature and its divine manifestations. Presumably on the basis of that all, or most of, Illyrian deities were in a zoomorphic shape so that later on, under Roman influence, they gradually got their anthropomorphic shape.
But, it would be wrong to conclude that cults of snake, frog, zviždenjak or even trees, water, fire, caves or hills and mountains, were the only cults that existed. Authenticity was the key element of existence of the above mentioned cults since otherwise they would be lost in history, especially because of foreign influences and new religious dogmas and tenants.
The continuity of worshiping these cults outlasted all breaking events in the long history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the Roman empire all the way up to the advent of monotheism, but also the Communist system which was based on atheism. An especially fascinating data is that these cults existed successfully in parallel with Christianity and Islam, transforming itself into that which is today referred to as "folk religion" in which pagan and cult beliefs are intertwined with elements of Christianity and Islam.
In my personal opinion the most merit for the survival of old Illyrian cults is credited to the most dominant cult among them - cult of fertility. Namely, in each of them, elements of cult of fertility were present in its widest sense, regardless of its particularity. An ideal example of this is the cult of the snake which nurtured not only the cult of fertility, but also the cult of the dead (ancestors) and so it connected an entire community into a whole. Snake as a holly animals and a totem became one of the holders of an identity of a people and in the following centuries and periods it found its place in folklore and art of all those countries that once constituted parts of the Illyricum, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Representation of the snake in various forms on tombstones presents a continuation of Illyrian sacral art, but it is important to mention that this animalistic motif is found on outside walls of numerous Bosnian houses, especially next to entrance doors, such as the old house of Beglerović family in Repovci near Konjic. Snake as a figurative motif was regularly carved onto fiddles and numerous other artistic artefacts.
The thing which is especially characteristic for ancient cults is fatalism, which is intensively present in all cults which were recorded in the tradition of the Bosnian people. It is surely a logical summary, especially if we take into consideration the traditional propensity towards superstition and magic in everyday life of our ancestors.
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